I think we would be courting many more problems than solutions if we responded to the Sandy Hook massacre by placing armed guards in all schools or arming teachers. But as bad as those proposals are, using firearms to protect our kids from bad guys isn't nearly as toxic to the American idea as using them to "protect" ourselves from our own government.

More than 236 years after we began forging the United States in the fire of revolution, it's time for Americans to finally take insurrection off the table and re-commit ourselves to our peaceful republican ideals.

We can and should maintain the right to keep and bear arms without holding on to the irrational fear that the only thing standing between us and tyranny is the potential for political violence. Doing that would not only provide a dose of sanity into our debate about guns; it could actually save us from a senseless, potentially suicidal second civil war.

Unfortunately, getting there means taking on the long and deeply held beliefs of many Americans.

The proponents of the Commonwealth of Belle Isle plan, being successful businessmen with a sound understanding of economic principles, are most likely familiar with the Law of Unintended Consequences. Therefore they must be comfortable with the precedent this plan would create.

If Belle Isle could be extracted from Michigan to form a tax-free Puerto Rico-like “commonwealth,” then why couldn’t other parts of the country secede from their respective states? The greater San Francisco Bay area could leave California and form a territorial government based on the governing structure of an organic food co-op. Mississippi could simply renounce its statehood and form a territory where a poll tax is allowed. Clearwater could leave Florida and form a theocracy built around Scientology. For that matter, why couldn’t a group of unhinged left-wingers form a territory on vacant Detroit land and implement Pol Pot’s agrarian policies within its borders?